Graduation Term

Fall 2024

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Mennonite College of Nursing

Committee Chair

Mary J. Dyck

Committee Co-Chair

Patricia Pence

Committee Member

Myoung Jin Kim

Committee Member

Sandra Nielsen

Committee Member

Cherrill Stockmann

Abstract

This dissertation comprises three manuscripts intended for publication, each exploring clinical judgment in nursing education. The first manuscript presents a scoping literature review on current research in teaching clinical judgment within classroom settings. The review highlights inconsistencies in defining terms such as clinical judgment, clinical reasoning, and critical thinking, complicating educators' efforts to identify relevant research. The review concludes with a call for consistent definitions and measures to assess students' learning of clinical judgment, noting active learning as a prevalent teaching strategy.

The second manuscript reports on a quasi-experimental mixed methods study investigating the impact of two classroom teaching interventions on clinical judgment skills in the simulation lab. Guided by Tanner’s Clinical Judgment Model, the study utilized this framework for the online clinical judgment assessment and simulator, as well as the measurement tools in the simulation lab. Over a semester, the intervention compared an online simulator to a control group using standard quizzes, with students evaluated in the simulation lab on three occasions. Although no statistical significance was found between groups, both showed a significant increase in clinical judgment scores from the first to the last simulation, indicating promising student learning outcomes in both classroom and simulation settings.

The third manuscript offers a summary of lessons learned regarding the methodology and teaching interventions used in this project. It discusses the logistics of implementing classroom interventions and lab simulations, with the primary investigator reflecting on insights gained and their implications for nursing education.

Access Type

Dissertation-Open Access

Available for download on Friday, January 15, 2027

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